Tag: joy

  • What Do You See? Opening our spiritual eyes.

    stylized Adam and Eve hiding in the garden

    We aren’t very far into the Bible when things go terribly wrong. You know the story.

    Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:1-8 ESV

    Now, prior to this, both Adam and Eve walked in the garden in a close personal relationship. They knew the Lord as intimately and personally as it is possible for a person to know Him. They understood His love, compassion and mercy.

    What changed? The obvious answer is they sinned. Yet, what moved them from joy to fear?

    With sin-filled eyes, we cannot see God as He truly is. They now saw God through distorted lenses and created a harsh God of their own imaginings. It’s what we do.

    Some see God as a Monty Python-like foot ready to stomp on us for any sin. Others see Him as a cosmic genie there to grant our every wish and desire. For some people, he’s a doddering old man who either cannot see our sins or, if he does, is unable or unwilling to do anything about them.

    There are those who pretend that He doesn’t exist. The great civilizations of the past imagined Him as a pantheon of very flawed human-like capricious gods.

    The truth is that the God revealed to us in the Bible is none of those things. He is benevolent, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He loves us so much that Jesus came and died so that we could be restored into a right relationship with Him and be adopted into His family.

    He is too beautiful and wonderful for us to understand with our sin-filled minds. Even as believers whose sins have been atoned for do not yet see him clearly, but the day will come when we will. He will open our spiritual eyes to see the truth.

    For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:32

    I can hardly wait. What about you?

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    Gleanings From The Word – Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life. 

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  • Perseverance – A Christian Virtue

    Illustration from a children's book

    Some of you will know that I have been working on a children’s book  series, inspired by conversation and storytelling sessions with my grandchildren and their friends over the years. Since October or November 2024, when I wrote the first concept edition of “A Surprising Arrival” as a Christmas present for the grandchildren, I have been writing,  editing, rewriting, getting it professionally edited, and rewriting again. It’s an act of love, but it’s a journey.

    Yesterday, I took the terrifying step of submitting to a literary agent. Once I have an agent, they will handle finding a publisher. Very few publishing houses still accept non-agented submissions. Agent hunting will likely require many rejections as I try to connect with the one who is looking for exactly the right fit.

    So, why am I telling you this? There are two reasons. First, it fits with the theme of today’s Gleanings. The second is far more selfish: to ask you to visit the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551114373506 and follow it. The more followers, the more appealing to an agent. Thanks in advance.

    This writing has been a work of perseverance. With Gleanings, it’s write something in the morning and move on. When I was freelancing for newspapers and magazines, it was “do the assignment” and move on.

    This has been two years of working at it, often with extended periods of intensive activity and steep learning curves. Now, I’m just at step two, a step that will involve rejection. Then, assuming the agent finds me a publisher, I will have to rework things to their standards. There is no guarantee of success. Less than 1% of children’s books make it to publication (outside of self-publishing).

    In life, we often have to persevere, sometimes through trials and difficult times. Yet perseverance is highly regarded as a Christian virtue. Why? Because it changes us.

    Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4 ESV

    Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5 ESV

    His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Peter 1:3-8 ESV

    Hold fast, my dear friends. The Lord has His hand on you, and He will not waste your suffering.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

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